"
"Pardon me, Captain Borroughcliffe," said his host, elevating his person
to more than its usually erect attitude; "they may be misguided,
deluded, and betrayed, but the comparison is unjust. Give them arms and
give them discipline, and he who gets an inch of their land from them,
plentiful as it is, will find a bloody day on which to take possession."
"The veriest coward in Christendom would fight in country where wine
brews itself into such a cordial as this," returned the cool soldier. "I
am a living proof that you mistook my meaning; for had not those loose-
flapped gentlemen they call Vermontese and Hampshire-granters (God grant
them his blessing for the deed) finished two-thirds of my company, I
should not have been at this day under your roof, a recruiting instead
of a marching officer; neither should I have been bound up in a
covenant, like the law of Moses, could Burgoyne have made head against
their long-legged marchings and countermarchings. Sir, I drink their
healths, with all my heart; and with such a bottle of golden sunshine
before me, rather than displease so good a friend, I will go through
Gates' whole army, regiment by regiment, company by company, or, if you
insist on the same, even man by man, in a bumper."
"On no account would I tax your politeness so far," returned the
colonel, abundantly mollified by this ample concession; "I stand too
much your debtor, Captain Borroughcliffe, for so freely volunteering to
defend my house against the attacks of my piratical, rebellious, and
misguided countrymen, to think of requiring such a concession.
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